In recent years, the Internet has become an influential, widespread message distribution center involved in the vigorous development of the rapid spread of information and electronic technology. According to the survey, all users using the Internet all over the world generate at least 100 billion Internet search records per month. Therefore, we can see the habit of people relying on the Internet. Since people need the assistance of the Internet to play online games, view advertising and marketing, plan tours, make medical appointments, and even check the bus schedule, how to enhance the convenience and the stability of the Internet in various environments has been one of the important topics for the related industry to resolve.
Generally, the spread of the network signals can be divided into “wire transmission” and “wireless transmission.” The former connects a network device and a computer equipment to transmit the network signals through an Ethernet cable, and the latter is to make the network device send the network signal to the computer equipment wirelessly. However, the cable transmission is limited by the difficulty of laying Ethernet cable, and it is further problematic to completely cover the network signals in the same area. The wireless transmission is likely to be interfered by obstacles, which results in signal instability. Each of the two ways has its advantages and disadvantages, and is not perfectly available for all users.
In order to solve the problems involved in the difficulty of laying Ethernet cables and the interference of wireless Internet signals from obstacles, researchers developed a power line communication technology (PLC), which is a technology that utilizes the existing power lines in the buildings to transmit the network signals. When using the power line communication technology, users have to purchase a set of power line communication transmitters (eg: bridges) first and plug the transmitters into power outlets on different positions. Thereby, power lines can be utilized for the network signal transmission through the conversion of the network signals by each of the power line communication transmitters. Since the power line is a necessary line structure in each building, users therefore don't have to do much rewiring through using the power lines as their backbone for the transmission of network media. A lot of construction cost and time can be saved, and the interior decorated appearance of the building can then be completely retained. Therefore, this is a very ideal solution. However, power line communication technology has two main problems in practical applications, and hereby described as follows:
(1) Occupying sockets: General electrical outlets are set with two or more jacks. However, the spacings between these jacks are not wide enough and are much smaller than the configuration of power line transmission transmitter. As a result, it easily occupies the space of many jacks when the power line transmission transmitters are used. This causes the user unable to use the power line for power in the space. Although the user can use an extension cord or a power strip to avoid this problem, the majority of these devices on the market are set with electronic components, such as surge protectors, in order to enhance the security quality. This kind of electronic component would regard the network signals as surges and significantly reduce the signal strength of the network signals.
(2) Noise interference: Since the power line was originally intended only as a simple power supply medium and was not specifically designed for high quality transmission capacity, the voltage carried by the power line changes and even generates electromagnetic radiation along with the load of various electronic devices. Moreover, electronic devices are prone to generate noises when being powered. The network signals are imperceptibly interfered. Network signal transmission quality is reduced in mild cases, and completely destroyed in severe cases.
As to the first aforementioned problem, the industry has designed a power line communication device 1 with sockets as shown in FIG. 1. The power line communication device 1 is set with a male plug 11, a female socket 12 and a plurality of network ports 13, and a power line communication module is also set inside. When the male plug 11 is plugged into a power outlet, the power line communication device 1 can receive the power line communication signals from the power outlet and transmit the power line communication signals to other computer equipment, such as laptops, through the network ports 13. In addition, the user can still plug an electrical equipment, such as fans, chargers, etc., in the female socket 12 when the power line communication signals are transmitted at the same time. Thus, the jacks on the power outlet won't be occupied due to the need for receiving the power line communication signal.
In addition, as to the preceding second problem, some industries add an additional filter module in the power line communication device 1 as shown in FIG. 1 to filter out the noise generated by the electrical equipment so that the power line communication signals will not be disturbed. With respect to the two aforementioned ways, the problems can be perfectly solved. However, there is still a significant problem as far as the industry is concerned—because of taking the different needs of users into consideration, the industry need to separately design the power line communication device “with the filter module” or “without the filter module” when producing the power line communication device. In addition to adjusting the internal standard and the circuit configuration for different versions of the power line communication devices, the industry further needs to get different versions of the products certified. The industry's production costs are thereby significantly increased, and the development time is also significantly prolonged. For the industry, these are really disturbing dilemmas.
Therefore, how to improve the power line communication device to simplify costs and reduce time during the development and production process for this industry has become an important issue for the present invention to resolve.